


How Could He Have Got It So Wrong?

by MsBrooklyn



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 00:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6098514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBrooklyn/pseuds/MsBrooklyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>According to X-Files mythology, the date for colonization was set and it was supposed to be in late December 2012.  The alien invasion happened in the MCU in spring of 2012.  In other words, the X-Files revival could have happened a lot like this... if it parodied as many of Chris Carter's tropes and cliches as possible.  </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For Gooligan, who's been with me since the beginning, when fanfic was posted on the friggin' UseNet and who inspired me to write some of the craziest stuff that I blush about to this day.  Love ya, chica!</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Could He Have Got It So Wrong?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gooligan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gooligan/gifts).



**How Could He Have Got It So Wrong?**  
  
  
  
  
When it began, it began on a warm, slightly overcast spring day in 2012 and not in late December, as Fox Mulder was led to believe.  Actually, it began with the alleged appearance of a Norse god in Germany -- an X-File unto itself -- quickly followed by an alien invasion led by the Norse god in New York City.  
  
Mulder should have been celebrating.  
  
He wasn't.  
  
The invasion didn't involve fatal contagions carried by bees, troops of clones, alien-human hybrids, or alien super soldiers.  FEMA didn't even show up until the following day.  
  
Instead, what happened was that the aliens came flying out of a rift in the sky in their space ships that looked _nothing_ like any of Mulder's many UFO pictures.  In fact, the space ships looked like insects and, okay, fine, colonization or conquest was definitely their agenda but they just _weren't_ what Mulder was expecting when it finally began.  
  
He also hadn't been expecting Captain America to come back from the dead and lead a team of honest-to-goodness superheroes against the alien invasion and actually _win_.  
  
Sure, Mulder _knew_ he was supposed to be happy that they won, that the Earth didn't end up being colonized, that the planet's population hadn't been eradicated by an alien virus.    
  
But still...  
  
Years of investigation, years of trying to uncover the truth...  Friends lost, family killed...  And for what?  
  
Oh sure, _now_ everyone knows that Mulder had been right all along about the existence of extra-terrestrials.  There was even talk of re-opening the X-Files if he ever wanted to end his leave of absence -- which Mulder took when he was diagnosed with depression.  
  
Instead, Mulder's doctor upped Mulder's dosage of anti-depressants.  
  
Because, really, how could he have got it so _wrong_?

 

******************

  
  
The conclusive debunking of his life's work laid Mulder low until he decided to go looking for answers and luckily, the biggest lead in his investigation moved to DC to go work for SHIELD.  Rumor had it that Captain America liked to jog around the National Mall in the early mornings.  Mulder spent many mornings and late nights jogging there himself, especially when he was a young FBI agent with a bright future.  Now, on the wrong side of fifty, Mulder didn't jog quite as fast and he didn't find it as relaxing anymore.  He spent the better part of the summer jogging, trying to meet the man but all he got for his trouble was back in shape again.  Which, okay, _fine_ wasn't a bad thing.  
  
Two weeks later, SHIELD -- which Mulder _never_ trusted, thank you very much -- collapsed.  Thanks to Captain America and the Black Widow, a vast global conspiracy by HYDRA, in which HYDRA infiltrated governments and corporations in order to fulfill its agenda of world domination, was revealed.  
  
Mulder should have been overjoyed.  
  
The conspiracy theories that he'd been espousing for years had finally been proven right.  
  
Here's the thing.  It was a vast global conspiracy but it wasn't the one Mulder thought existed, the one that concealed the existence of extra-terrestrials, conducted experiments on people through staged abductions and used vaccinations as a means of managing an increasingly unmanageable population.  
  
Naturally, his doctor increased his dosage of anti-depressants.  
  
Because, really, how could he have got it so _wrong_?

 

***********

  
  
Scully tried to make Mulder appreciate that the world didn't end up in the hands of the Chitauri, that HYDRA wasn't doing any of the things he thought a vast global conspiracy did and that his work on the X-Files was being taken seriously.  Finally.  
  
And wasn't it nice to suddenly be so highly regarded?  
  
Unfortunately, Mulder would have had to say 'no'.  
  
He ends up spending a lot of time trying to figure out where he went wrong, how he could have been so misled by poring through the leaked files for any mention of CGB Spender, his father, Samantha or _anything_ that might connect the dots.  When that fails, Mulder decides to get off his ass, get off his medication and _do_ something, goddammit.  
  
The trail takes him from DC to Oregon, not far from where Billy Miles was abducted all those years ago, to the remains of a HYDRA bunker where the smell of cordite hangs heavy in the air along with the smell of the dead HYDRA agents that are seemingly everywhere.  Even though the place is as quiet as a tomb -- bad pun -- Mulder is sure the killer is still here.  
  
Mulder pulls out his trusty Maglite and his old badge and lies through his teeth when he shouts, "Federal Agent! Come out with your hands up!"  
  
A man steps out of the shadows, both hands raised.  His left arm is made of gleaming metal and his shoulder bears a shiny red Soviet star.  This could be it, Mulder thinks.  This man and his arm could be the answer to _everything_.  
  
"You get that arm in Tunguska?" Mulder asks hopefully.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Tunguska," Mulder repeats.  "The Russian black oil vaccine tests.  An entire village cut off their left arms to avoid..."  He trails off because the guy doesn't seem to be following him at all.  "Uh... No arm, no tests?"  
  
The man stares at Mulder, like Mulder's the crazy one in this scenario.  
  
"You're not an alien super soldier are you?" Mulder tries again.  
  
"No," the man says, his voice rough from disuse.  "I'm not an _alien_ super soldier.  Can I put my hands down now?"  
  
"That depends.  Is your last name Krycek by any chance?"  
  
Mulder wakes up two hours later with a huge bruise on his right temple, no idea of how the one-armed man moved so fast and no closer to any kind of an answer about what the hell happened to _his_ conspiracy.  Or his sister.  It's invigorating.  It makes him feel _young_ again.  
  
Or maybe he's just having a manic episode from being off his meds.  
  
Either way, Mulder gets up and dusts himself off.  
  
The truth is out there.  
  
And he's going to find it.

 


End file.
